How Regenera Luxury measures regeneration: the Standard, the KPIs and the audit

Readers of this publication meet two kinds of evidence. Our own five-step scale is an editorial reading of what a destination can show. Certification assesses a single property against defined criteria, with evidence checked by an auditor. Because many hotels in our profiles work with Regenera Luxury, it is worth setting out how its method works, from its own publications, and how it compares with older frameworks.

Why claims now need evidence

In the European Union, Directive (EU) 2024/825 on empowering consumers for the green transition bans, among other practices, displaying a sustainability label that is not based on a certification scheme or established by public authorities, and making a generic environmental claim that a trader cannot back with recognised excellent environmental performance ⁶. A certification scheme, in its definition, needs monitoring by a third party independent of both the scheme owner and the trader ⁶. Member States had to adopt the rules by 27 March 2026 and apply them from 27 September 2026 ⁶. A companion Green Claims Directive, proposed in March 2023, stalled in June 2025 when the Commission announced its intention to withdraw it ⁷.

In the United Kingdom, the Competition and Markets Authority’s Green Claims Code, published in September 2021, requires claims to be truthful, consider the full life cycle and be substantiated, and notes that self-assessed marks are more likely to raise concerns than marks awarded by independent third parties ⁸. Since 6 April 2025 the CMA can itself fine a company up to 10% of its worldwide turnover for breaches of consumer law ⁹. The burden of proof is moving onto whoever makes the claim.

Nine sections, 51 criteria

The Regenera Luxury Standard, now in version 1.4, is organised in nine sections and 51 criteria, grouped in four layers ¹. Governance comes first: Foundation & Governance (10 criteria). Operations follow: Hotel Zones & Operations (9), Environmental Benefits (4), Regenerative Construction (4), Wellness & Longevity (6) and Neuromarketing & Consistency (8). Two sections face the destination directly: Local Economic Regeneration (3) and Cultural Heritage & Legacy (3). Accountability closes the structure with Monitoring & Transparency (4) ¹.

The definition behind the Standard — what “regenerative luxury” means and how it is meant to be measured — is set out in a 2026 paper by Regenera Luxury’s founder, Héctor de Castro ³⁴. It is a preprint, posted in July 2026 and not necessarily peer reviewed; it reports use by more than 160 properties in over 30 countries, a figure from the framework’s designer ⁴.

From a library of KPIs to a property’s own set

Criteria are measured through key performance indicators drawn from a library of around 600; each property’s set is calibrated to its typology and its destination ¹. Scope therefore varies, and each property works with a subset of the library: the Magazine reports a target of 150 KPIs for Asa Wright Nature Centre in Trinidad, on the Signature pathway ⁵, and a target scope of 500 KPIs for Hôtel des Horlogers in Switzerland ³.

From “claimed” to “measured”

Each KPI carries a status that runs from “claimed” to “measured”, and records are kept in the structure accredited auditors work to; an independent audit verifies the evidence ¹. The Standard also follows regeneration into the accounts, month by month, to gross operating profit, and is applied through Regenera Luxury’s management platform, RLP ¹. The Asa Wright case shows what the path looks like in practice: step 5 of 7 on the Signature pathway, with governance and an evidence library being built, a water-quality retest pending and section scores withheld until a reassessment ⁵.

Certification is graded Signature, Gold or Platinum, with evidence checked by document review and on-site audit ¹⁰. The package also includes a mandatory membership and a twelve-month “Revenue Accelerator Kit” ². Below it sits RL Verified, an annually renewed entry level: a document-based review of 30 KPIs by a certified reviewer, explicitly without an on-site audit, at US$600 a year ¹². The criteria themselves are reviewed every two years by Regenera Luxury’s independent Board of Advisors, which the Standard describes as external ¹.

How it compares

The Global Sustainable Tourism Council’s criteria come in two sets — Industry Criteria for hotels and tour operators, and Destination Criteria — under four pillars: sustainable management, socioeconomic, cultural and environmental impacts; they follow the ISEAL Alliance’s standard-setting code ¹³. GSTC does not certify anything itself ¹⁴. It accredits certification bodies, which must comply with ISO/IEC 17065 and run a transparent and impartial procedure ¹⁵. EarthCheck, whose science was developed by the Australian Government’s Sustainable Tourism Co-operative Research Centre, certifies everything from small operations to destinations and is GSTC-recognised ¹⁶. Travelife, a trademark owned by ABTA, certifies tour operators at two levels, with an independent on-site audit at the higher one and reassessment every two years ¹⁷; accommodation has its own Travelife certification ¹⁸. B Corp assesses a whole company’s social, environmental and governance impact against B Lab’s standards, with third-party verification based on ISO 17021-1 ¹⁹.

Regenera Luxury says its framework is aligned to selected KPIs from frameworks including GSTC, UNWTO, LEED and UNESCO, and adds regenerative metrics for luxury boutique hotels ². It differs in scope — wellness, neuromarketing, operating profit — and in ambition: its glossary speaks of “measurable, net-positive impact” ¹¹. We found no statement on its pages that the Standard is GSTC-recognised or that its certification is accredited to ISO/IEC 17065.

What a destination-level reading would need

Certification is about properties; this publication is about places. The founder’s paper accepts that “regenerative certification cannot be adjudicated at property level alone” and says destination programmes are still in development ⁴. Regenera Luxury’s destinations page lists indicators from ecosystem restoration to local procurement, with a flagship in Veracruz, but does not say how baselines are set or destination results verified ²⁰.

A destination reading would need at least three things. First, baselines set at the scale where change happens — a watershed, a reef, a municipality — not the hotel boundary; Asa Wright had yet to establish its biodiversity baselines ⁵. Second, shared indicators; the GSTC Destination Criteria already include some ²¹. Third, verification by a party with no stake in the result. A list of certified hotels does not add up to a destination outcome.

Limits and conflicts

Regenera Luxury writes the Standard, certifies the auditors, sells the certification package and runs awards; it is also working alongside properties during certification ²³²²²⁴. Its auditors are described as senior, independent professionals holding Regenera Luxury’s own accreditation ²². Their code of conduct requires “full independence from auditees” and bars gifts, but does not address advisory work for audited properties, rotation, cooling-off periods or who takes the final certification decision ²³. The awards use a metric-based framework with “no judges”, charge a US$100 nomination fee and are presented as an entry point to certification ²⁴; the paper presents them as a governance response to greenwashing and greenhushing, and discloses the founder’s “direct affiliation and material interest” ⁴. GSTC separates standard-setting from certification; Regenera Luxury keeps both under one roof, and whether that meets the EU test of independence from the scheme owner is for regulators to judge ⁶¹⁵.

Transparency has also narrowed. The Standard’s public pages have been withdrawn from open access, which Regenera Luxury attributes to copying by competitors; documentation is shared on request with partners ²⁵. Public comments on the criteria are reviewed by a technical committee, but no revision dates are published ²⁶.

Where certification meets destinations

Certification and destinations meet in the Standard’s destination layer and in its monitoring section, which sets out how evidence is monitored and made public ¹. When a certifying property appears in our profiles, as in Trinidad and Tobago, we cite its results as what they are: evidence about that property, verified by its auditor, not a verdict on the destination around it.